Ocean City Seeking More County Funds

SNOW HILL — Representatives for the five major municipalities in Worcester County got a chance to make specific requests for grant funding from the County Commissioners Tuesday for the coming fiscal year.

While most were content asking the county to match its funding from the previous year, Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan requested a significantly larger grant than last year.

Meehan said he was in agreement with the other representatives in recognizing the scarcity of resources in the county, and the difficulty in distributing those fairly.

However, in a letter sent to the commission, Meehan brings up a study done in 2007 which identified “several county programs or services not offered or provided to Ocean City residents.” There are a number of items cited, including programs from the Worcester County Departments of Tourism, Public Works, Recreation and Parks and Emergency Services, among others. It was argued at the time that more than $13 million in property taxes were being paid by Ocean City residents for these programs, despite the fact that they could not be utilized.

Because of the study, the commissioners agreed to raise the undesignated grant to Ocean City from $350,000 in the 2008 budget to $2,400,000 in the 2009. When the economy began to struggle, though, all grants to Ocean City were cut by roughly 10 percent and remained static at that rate for both the 2010 and 2011 budgets.

Meehan remarked that the economic downturn negatively impacted Ocean City and resulted in city programs being slashed. He suggested that if the commissioners were to increase grant money this year and in the future, it would go a long way toward helping his city fully recover.

Meehan requested that the commissioners restore this year’s grant level to the former high of $2,400,000 in 2009 plus an additional 5 percent. On top of that, he asked that the amount be increased by 10 percent every year after to “bring the total of the grants to an amount closer to the cost of the services that Ocean City taxpayers should not be required to pay.”

Meehan informed the commission in his letter that a similar request had been made to state legislators reinforcing the application being made to the county.

While no decisions were made Tuesday regarding future grants for Ocean City, Ocean Pines, Berlin, Snow Hill or Pocomoke, the commissioners promised to keep all requests made in mind when deliberating on the issue.

Featured Stories

SALISBURY – The Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore raised more than $88,000 during its second annual “Shore Gives More” campaign. The foundation’s online campaign allowed individuals to find charities from Worcester, Wicomico and Somerset counties and give them the opportunity to donate on one site. “The Community Foundation serves a diverse audience of organizations,”… Read more »

OCEAN CITY — New regulations prohibiting bow-riding on vessels could be in place as soon as next spring after a productive meeting last week between the area’s representatives in Annapolis and state boating officials. In the wake of several serious boating accidents in the resort last summer, including a fatal propeller strike that claimed the… Read more »

OCEAN CITY — Roughly nine miles off the coast of Ocean City, a quiet memorial and final resting place of a beloved long-time resort local, who passed a year ago this month, is now symbolically teeming with life as part of growing artificial reef site. Tony Meredith, known reverently and affectionately as “Uncle Tony” by… Read more »

OCEAN CITY — Calling a potential designation of the offshore Baltimore Canyon as the nation’s first Urban National Marine Sanctuary potentially “devastating” to the multi-million dollar fishing industry, resort officials this week agreed to send a letter of opposition to state and federal representatives. In October, National Aquarium officials announced they were seeking an Urban… Read more »